The Oklahoma high school teacher who introduced students to the program resigned. Kids are wearing shirts to school with a barcode that connects to the BPL website and colleagues are making yard signs.
Summer Boismier, a former Norman High School English teacher, said that theQR code has become a symbol of resistance in her state. She quit in protest after she gave the code to students.
Proponents say they are protecting children from being exposed to sexualized material. Proponents of the policy say the policy makes it harder to discuss institutional racism and makes it harder to understand themselves.
According to the nonprofit free speech group PEN America, hundreds of titles have been banned in nearly 3000 schools in 26 states.
The group No Left Turn in Education is in favor of banning books that contain sexually explicit imagery.
Elana Fishbein said that the school is not for politicians. The school is to teach kids how to succeed in life. It should not be a hostile place.
A larger, nationwide clash over classroom discussions of race and gender identity has seen conservatives push money and candidates for school board positions. Glenn Youngkin's pledge to give parents more power over what their children learn in school helped propel him to victory in Virginia.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, said in June that if he lost reelection, the Republicans would ban books related to the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community.
In Oklahoma, Boismier's departure galvanized parents to give out flyers and T-shirts with a code for students to use at school. Heather Hall, who owns a local bookstore, said Books Unbanned has been a lifesaver for her middle-schooler.
She said that she has access to people all the way across the country because her child is in middle school.
Before the academic year began, Boismier covered potentially violative books in her classroom with butcher paper that included a barcode for Books Unbanned. That prompted a parent to complain that students could access pornographic material.
Boismier was told that she was on administrative leave. The school district denied that Boismier was ever placed on administrative leave, suspended or fired.
The parent alleged that Boismier madederogatory and divisive remarks about state legislators during class time and used her classroom to make a political display.
There was no violation of the Oklahoma state law or State Department of Education rules and the issue was not about any books on the teacher's shelves or the use of the public libraryQR code.
One of the red state's more moderate burgs is the city, Oklahoma's third largest with a population of around 120k. Donald Trump won the area by 14 points. It was a "sundown town" that prevented Black people from owning homes or staying out after dark.
The Oklahoma Education Secretary wants Boismier's license revoked because some books are inappropriate for kids.
"Rather than being more concerned about the kids and their development and is this appropriate for kids at that grade level, they've decided to take an ideological bent here."
Disseminating information is part of the Brooklyn library's mission. The library system felt compelled to defy the laws of the land.
Linda Johnson is the president and CEO of the BPL. Literature allows you to get to know yourself better, it allows you to see new things, and we don't think anyone should be shut out of that regardless of where they live
The director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom decried the efforts to silence people of color, as well as those of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LPL) community. She referred to Oklahoma as a hub for legislative activity that seeks to remove such books.
Fishbein says books such as Jelani Memory's "A Kids Book About Racism" and "Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness" teach students to hate the US.
The library was flooded with inquiries from teens nationwide after Books Unbanned went public.
Elsewhere in the country, the program is gaining ground.
Even if putting books in front of teens isn't slowing them down, the Texas American Federation of Teachers is reversing efforts by conservative groups like Moms for Liberty.
The library code isn't stopping them from pushing these policies in an attempt to disrupt the schools, according to the president of the statewide union. The library code may be making it difficult to keep books away from children.
According to the Texas Tribune, Texas has nixed more books this year than any other state.
The congressman asked the schools if they had any of the 850 books on the list. The books were removed from some school districts.
Lone Star State parents can take their students out of class or activities if they don't agree with their religion. They can look at their students' records.
The Queens Public Library and the New York Public Library have done the same things. In April and May the NYPL made banned materials free through their app.
Tony Marx, the New York Public Library's president and CEO, said it is not a big city pushing liberal agenda but about libraries doing their jobs.
Marx said that Brooklyn is doing a great job. We should do everything we can to resist this attempt to limit what the public can read. It is outrageous that this is taking place.
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